alone for a while
gone are the distant voices
that faded, now lost
left are echoes of my words
burbling in the pebbled rill
Copyright © 2020-11-04, by Liz Bennefeld.
Patchwork Prose & Quilted Poetry
early autumn dusk
quiet settles on the woods
pop of burning logs
cold snows brush the windows
an almost-winter lullaby
Copyright © 2020-11-02, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Photo by WantTo Create on Unsplash
night’s moonbeams reveal
visions hidden by daylight
vanished with dawn’s mist
wee fairies in their snow boots
gathered round a glowing coalsome swing from dead stems
into snowdrifts thrice their height
some gathered flower petals
layered thick for cushions
their fragrance fills the airon the shortest day
the longest night of winter
cling close for the warmth
after all the winter storms
it will once again be spring
“Fairy Winter”. Copyright © 2020-11-01, by Elizabeth W. Bennefeld.
Image by Ulrike Leone from Pixabay
In addition to the two poems that I wrote for this week’s Ronovan Writes Haiku Weekly Poetry Challenge (see my Quilted Poetry post of Monday, 6 July 2020: Stargazing), I found myself wanting to write a few more poems this morning during my 1-hour weekday “mandatory” writing time.
No photographs for these, but I may dig around for a Painted Lady butterfly in my archives, since we had two or three summers of a larger-than-usual population of them, here in the Red River Valley.
as evening’s lights dim
the mind drifts from thoughts to dreams
restless ripples gonesleep in night’s gentle waters
cradled in sea lullabies
Copyright © 2020-07-07, by Lizl Bennefeld.
clover in the grass
a painted lady settles…
flower to flower
Copyright © 2020-07-07, by Lizl Bennefeld.
time almost never
matches with the goals at hand…
hurry? more rewrites?would that time were elastic
or my planning more precise
Copyright © 2020-07-07, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Survival Guide (Enumeratio Poem)
I love enumeratio poetry! I decided just to have fun with this, and made a numbered list in response to the prompt. As an aside, here: I have been writing (and referring to) survival lists/guides ever since I started journaling sometime in the early sixties, while I still was in high school. As I finished each journal, I would copy my list into the new one, go through the old one to pull out the “creative writing” pages, and then shred or burn the old journal. I quit doing paper journals around beginning of this century.
Write yourself a survival guide as a list poem: What are the things you need to know to survive? What should you have known? What do you need to remember? What do you know that only you can tell yourself? What items do you need? What actions do you need to take? [Sarah Tatro, Poetry Super Highway]
Survival Guide:
Things I decided, at one time or another, that I knew
and needed to remember
(a recent edition)
1. Nobody knows the answers. Everyone is making it up as they go along.
2. It’s better to screw up making your own mistakes than making someone else’s.
3. Make a list of what you know and, if possible, why you think you know it. Then make decisions on the basis of that list, not on what you want to be real, when you’re going crazy.
4. God understands your messes, and they don’t bother Him. He doesn’t confuse them with what or who you are, and neither should you.
5. Gain or loss, pleasure or pain, discovery or routine, sickness or health, friends or isolation, life or death. There are no guarantees or promises concerning these, life’s incidentals. And, they don’t count.
6. You are not alone. You are always loved. You are loved and valued neither more nor less than any and every other living being in creation. You are cared for. Always. No matter what.
7. Act justly, observe appropriate opportunities to perform acts of loving kindness, walk discretely with God, and with everyone else. As one among all the others.
8. We are all equally responsible. God is the One who’s capable.
9. You will never come to the end of things you do not know, or, knowing, things you do not understand. That’s not in your job description. You are responsible to give and receive love.
10. You have a profound purpose in life. You achieved it sometime before you turned twenty (or 10 … or whenever), and you’ll never know what it was. Everything since then has been gravy.*
Copyright © 2017-04-25, by Lizl Bennefeld. (For 2017’s NaPoWriMo Event)
*”everything else is gravy” = extra or beyond what’s expected or necessary in a good way.
“No Favors”
a prose poem
We did him no favors, keeping him alive beyond his time. All alone, now, safe from any germ or poison or dirt or grass or fresh, cold air and sun of an autumn morning, rays of light that caress, not treetops, now, but barren ground. It would be a kindness if keepers let him sleep one last time and let him never wake again. Or join him in that cage of glass that keeps him far away and yet so near to gentle touches, fingers running through his fur. Whisper sweet words of not-aloneness in his ear. The last animal on Earth that is not human lies dying. Do not let him die alone.
Copyright © February 2015, by Elizabeth W. Bennefeld.
I will not be remembered
no one will know my face
or hear echoes of my voice
my words will not live onand so, with every gesture
written words of mine, read,
inspired…thoughtful…
full of fun or joy or lovemy legacy will be reflected
in the here and now
gently leading, pushing
guiding those who willin turn go on to shape
tomorrows that I will not see
nor they, who will themselves
become the ripples in the stream
Copyright © 2018-08-29, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Note to myself: Do not lose touch with realities.
I remember our first poetry-writing assignment; it was in fifth grade, the same year we took the Iowa Basic Skills test in our elementary school. I discovered a paper copy in a stack of papers tucked away in a filing cabinet. Our town librarian, when she discovered that I liked science fiction novels, made sure that I got a look at every one that came into our village library. The Stars Are Ours had quite an impact on me. There was a sequel by Andre Norton in my future, and I enjoyed that book, too.
“The Far Voyage”
By Elizabeth “Lizl” Bennefeld
Inspired by Andre Norton’s The Stars Are Ours (1954)
At rest at last upon a foreign soil
that never knew the step of man before.
beneath the rocket’s fins,
red sand and rock stretch forth
to undergird bright, glistening azure seas.
Beyond their landing place,
up gentle, rolling hills,
far travelers, lost refugees
from Earth’s perpetual wars,
survey vast, untouched fields of grain,
their purple tassels swaying in a breeze
that also brushes golden fruit,
which hangs, sun ripened,
from the bordering trees.
A welcome haven, this new world,
to shelter those who fled in fear
before the waves of senseless hate
for all that’s different,
those who would not bow
to serve untruth or cruelty.
With gathered driftwood,
fires are lit beside a newfound sea,
to warm the bodies and the hearts
of those who now are free.
And as the night descends,
moons race across the sky.
And, one by one, new stars appear
in constellations that will light
new nights, new hopes, new dreams.
Before their weary eyes,
new shapes they seem to see-
a lamb, a dove, an olive-sprig wreath,
all signs of eternal peace.
Are they the promise of a new beginning,
or just a cruel mockery?
My first poem, written in fifth grade (~1956).